Monday, April 6, 2015

Office Lens is a new app for iOS and Android (still in limited beta) designed for converting pictures of notes on whiteboards and paper into notes that can be edited in Microsoft Word or PowerPoint. If you don't need to edit the notes that your take pictures of, you can simply export the file created by Office Lens to JPEG or PDF. Probably the neatest aspect of Office Lens is that hand-drawn images and figures captured through the app can be separated from the text to move and manipulate as individual objects in PowerPoint slides. See the video below for an overview of Office Lens.

Applications for EducationOffice Lens could be a great app for students to use to snap a picture of something on a whiteboard then add their own comments to it in a Word Document.

The option in Office Lens to separate hand-drawn objects could be a good way to digitize a brainstorming session. When I brainstorm I often do it in a paper notebook that has pages of edits. By taking a picture of the brainstorming session I could separate each part of the notes then move them into new positions on slides or in a document.

H/T to Lifehacker and about a half dozen other tech blogs I read this weekend.

Video has become a more ubiquitous element in education today: YouTube Videos, Kahn Academy, Flipped Content, iTunes U, and more. However, most teachers don’t want their students passively absorbing content. Rather, they want to make sure that students are engaged with the material. A great tool for incorporating more responsive features in your lessons is Zaption, which you can use to create interactive videos via a web browser or their free iOS App.

While Zaption does offer a robust, subscription model, the free tool will allow teachers to do a lot with both existing videos as well as those they create. After you sign up for an account, select “New Tour” on the top left of your screen. This will open the editing screen. The great thing about Zaption is that everything is drag and drop. So if you’re a bit lost, just try clicking and dragging something! If you want to add video, you can search for content online (YouTube, Vimeo, PBS, Nat Geo, etc), the Zaption library, or upload your own videos. Once you find the video that you want, simply click “Add this video to tour.”

Once the video is added, you can trim it down to the most important points and add subtitles. You can add multiple videos as well as still slides, drawings, and text slides in order to build a larger, more comprehensive broadcast. Once you have completed the video, it’s time to add in the interactive features! With the free version you can include: open responses, multiple choice, and check box questions (the pro feature adds a broader range of response elements that you may want to explore).

To share your video, simply click the red “Publish” button on the top right. Once published, click on the “share” button where you can retrieve a shareable link or an embed code to use on a website or an LMS. You can view responses to your questions by clicking on “Analytics.” Zaption videos are viewable via their free iOS App or via a web browser.

EdTechTeacher will be offering Summer Workshops on The Flipped Classroom, Google & Chromebooks, iPads, and more in 5 cities this June and July.

GraphFree is a new online graphing tool for students and teachers. On GraphFree students can enter plot graph points manually or enter an equation or function to see a graph generated. Each graph can then be saved as an image to use in a document, a presentation, or in a SMART Notebook folder. GraphFree provides a helpful gallery of tutorial videos and an extensive guide for new users.

Applications for EducationGraphFree provides a nice alternative to some expensive graphing calculators and apps. For a lot of high school students GraphFree will provide all of the functions that they need. GraphFree can also be used by teachers to simply download a blank graph to use for in-class graphing assignments done on paper.

Russel Tarr at Classtools.net has come up with another neat tool for students. The Classtools 3D Gallery Generator enables students to create a virtual 3D gallery of images and videos. Each gallery can have up to ten images and or videos. Below each image or video students can insert captions to provide explanations of the significance of the visuals in their galleries. In the video embedded below I provide a demonstration of how to use the Classtools.net 3D Gallery Generator.

Applications for Education
As is demonstrated by the sample, the 3D Gallery Generator can be a good way for students to organize a small presentation about topics they have researched.

The Classtools 3D Gallery Generator could also provide a good way for students to create a fiction story. They could use the 3D Gallery Generator as a storyboard tool in which they upload pictures that they want to use in writing their stories through the captions below each image.